For who I am, not what I am
by Dark Gothic Lolita
Summary: Princess Juvia of the Water Empire meets Prince Natsu of the Fire Land, but she's posing as a maid trying to find the perfect husband who will marry her for her, and not for her title. What if she catches Natsu's eye while being this maid? Will it work out, or will he get married to Lady Lucy?
1. Chapter 1

Hey Dark Gothic Lolita here!

So many people have been wondering whn I'm going to be able to produce another Natvia fanfic because A LOT of people seem to be enjoying it! I'm really glad that you guys like it! THANK YOU!

SO obviously, as you can see here, I have indeed released another Natvia fanfic that I have actually been working on for quite a while. I think I started this one some time around November last year? Not sure. Either way, it's coming out now!

Also, one of my favourite buddies (don't worry you guys, you're all my favourite buddies) has started up a Natvia community where we **Spread the NaVia**. (That is actually the name) so please applaud my GOOD FRIEND LANVIA-CHAN! Lanvia is another big big fan of Natvia and she has taken the time to start up this community for us! If you guys want to become staff, PM her (I'm not sure if you can PM me also, but PM her as she's the owner) and read many more Natvias that we find!

You guys have seriously been amazing people, like I can't believe it's been three years since I've been writing on this website! Hmm, I should have made this speech when it was actually 3 years...Oh well, better late than never!

I don't own Fairy Tail or their characters, but I DO own this storyline and the OCs! I apologize for my poor grammar and spelling!

ENJOY!

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**For who I am, not what I am**

**Chapter one**

A simple young woman of 21 stood in her new room. It was simple, just like her. Her parents were rich, they were Emperor and Empress of the Water Empire to be exact, only they knew how to spend their money wisely, and make sure they had enough for whenever their status was to suddenly drop. The woman had unpacked her clothes and sighed as she remembered her mother's and father's words.

"_It's time that you find yourself a husband, our dearest daughter. Because of your status, there will be many men after your hand, only because of the title you bare. We're sure that you understand what we're saying. You must go off into the neighbouring country and reduce yourself to a 'nobody.' We raised you right to respect everyone around you, even those poorer than us. Find the right husband who will love you for you and not for the word 'Princess' or 'Empress' in front of your birth name. Then in due time, you tell him, got it? Of course we will still keep your account open so you can have all access to your money, but you know what to do."_

She had agreed without any complaints. She didn't need to because that was what she wanted to do in the first place. At least her parents were being kind enough to let her choose her husband. Luckily, she had noticed that the Fire King of the Neighbouring land needed many maids, servants, butlers and all the rest to fulfill his son. She decided that she would quite simply become a maid, hopefully one that would work in the kitchen because she loved cooking.

She saw the time before she quickly rushed out of her room to go and stand in line with all the other maids and servants that would be starting work. She had already met the lady that was in charge of everything and she honestly didn't want to get on her bad side. She ran down the stairs and into the line very quickly before she could get caught out. It didn't work. The woman must have had eyes in the back of her head.

"As a maid, servant or butler, it is required that when you're called at a specific time, you make sure that you're early." She spun around on her heel and turned to glare at the young woman who then shrank back. "What is your name? Your blue hair is such a _sight _to look at." The blue haired woman cleared her throat, annoying the woman in front of her already. She wanted to frown. This was coming from a woman with flaming red hair?

"Juvia Lo-"

"I quite frankly do not CARE for your surname, peasant!" Juvia wanted to frown yet again. She would have never treated any of her servants and maids like this, and this woman probably didn't even have a high status! Maybe choosing this country was a big mistake. "Now, go off and clean the Highness' throne room. One of the guards will show you the way. Give her a bucket and some cleaning supplies. Make sure it's so clean that I can eat off of it!" Juvia nodded her head before quickly following the guard and another maid popped out of nowhere, throwing a bucket soap and a rag into her hand before swiftly walking off. Juvia rolled her eyes at the amount of attitude she had just received.

The guard opened the door of the throne room and thanked him before the door was shut with an echo. She looked around the throne room and shrugged. It wasn't as grand as her father's one, but that was probably because this was the Prince's throne room. She got on her knees and started scrubbing the floor over the whole place, sweating as she did so, not complaining once or grumbling to herself. Her hair came loose from her bun as it stuck around her face from the sweat and water that splashed onto her face. After scrubbing, she still had to go on and wash down the floor, then wipe it and then wax it to give it that shine. She was halfway through waxing when the door opened and two male voices were heard. It sounded like they were arguing.

"Aww come on! Lucy isn't THAT bad! Actually, she isn't bad at all!" Because Juvia was in the corner, she couldn't exactly see who they were just yet, but she knew she would get caught out soon enough. The other male sighed, his voice deep and cut.

"Yeah, but I see Luce as my sister, not a wife. Plus, I don't...I've seen enough of her. More than enough if you get what I'm saying." Juvia blanched as she pictured a woman showing off so much of her body. It was the one thing that made Juvia very different from most women. The first man that spoke made a perverted noise, making Juvia very disgusted, until he yelled out.

"Ah, shit! I stepped in a bucket of water!" Juvia tried her best not to laugh, so she kept her poker face on and crawled out of the gap that she was in. She bowed to them.

"Juvia is very sorry, Juvia was just waxing the floor. Juvia is finished now and will leave." She noticed that both men were the same height, one with pink hair and one with dark hair. The pink haired man looked warm and funny while his counterpart looked cold and distant. Surely he was the one who wasn't interested in this Lucy woman. Oh no, wait. He's stepping in the bucket making it the man with the perverted noise. Juvia tried to keep the disgusted look off her face as she looked at him.

He glared at her while the pink haired man openly stared at her, making her uncomfortable. "Juvia will go now." Her eyes slid to the floor, not used to being put on the spotlight and picking up the bucket from the floor while walking past the two men. She felt hot and cold at the same time, knowing that they were both still watching her back as she left. She was almost out of the throne room when that she-devil arrived, most probably to inspect the floor.

"I see that you're done and that you met His Royal Highness and his best friend, Prince of the Ice country. How are you, my Prince?" The woman bowed down and the smiling man just waved her off.

"Stop with the 'Royal Highness' crap already! No need to be formal to Gray either. He doesn't deserve it." Both of them started arguing and Juvia just stared at them in surprise. So the pink haired man was Natsu, the Prince of the Fire Land and the cold man was Gray, Prince of the Ice country. Juvia was going to leave them all and return to wherever she was supposed to go but a voice stopped her short and she turned around to stare into the dark, smiling eyes of Prince Natsu.

"I guess I'll see you around, Juvia."

The way he said her name sent warmth spiralling up her spine and a ghost smile crept up on her face. A light blush dusted her cheeks before she turned around very quickly, not knowing what to say in a situation like this and quickly walked away.

Natsu smirked as he watched Juvia walk away from him. Gray punched his arm and made him look at his wet leg. "That idiot, leaving her bucket for me to step into it. Anyway, Lucy is coming over in a few days so we have to get stuff ready." Natsu groaned out loud.

"You know what? You can have her! I don't want her to be my wife, I just like her as a sister and it will forever stay that way! She's not my type!" Gray and the woman raised an eyebrow.

"You have a type?" Natsu glared at the both of them.

"Yes I have a type _Gray _and _Erza_. What's wrong with that?" They snickered among each other before Natsu sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'm going now." He started walking before he heard a comment from Erza.

"What do you know, that girl did make it so clean that I can eat of off the floor." Natsu slammed the door behind him blocking out the noise of his two supposed best friends.

He sighed before thinking about Juvia. Her beautiful blue hair looked wild as it stuck to her face from all that sweat making her look so innocent and hardworking. That was his type. He didn't even care if she was a maid, he knew he was going to fall for her soon enough.

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Natsu, Gray and Erza. Those were the people that Juvia had to be careful of. Natsu and Gray were both Princes and she was most definitely not going to be 'seeing Natsu around' even though he was nice and cute at the same time. Gray would have been cute too if he didn't have a permanent scowl on his face and a chip on his shoulder. Was it really her fault that he walked into a bucket of water? No! Then Erza hated her already. She knew that she was going to be a fiery woman, especially as she had her red hair to live up to. All she needed to see was the woman by the name of 'Lucy.' Thought it sounded familiar.

Juvia sighed as she poured away the water. How the hell was she supposed to find a husband if she was posing as a maid? No one would _ever _fall for a maid! Not unless they were a servant themselves or something of that status. She dried the mop and left the rag to dry before wiping her hands and scraping her hair back. She knew that if she was Erza's least favourite, the woman was going to be on her case all day and ask her to do everything around the mansion.

A bell was rung and she watched as everyone started meeting up in the room where they were all lined up. Juvia quickly fell in line with them, catching Erza's glare fall upon her and she looked down at the ground, hoping it swallow her right up. "As you all know, Lady Lucy Heartphilia will be coming by soon enough and His Royal highness will be trying to court her. This place must be spotless and the food must be divine! JUVIA!"

Juvia's back snapped up sharp and she could hear gulps from her fellow servants. Erza was soon enough standing in front of her. "You will be working with the chefs! Quite frankly, you don't look like a cook but I want to make hell out of you." Juvia felt like smiling, hell, smirking in fact! She just nodded her head and stalked off to the kitchen. She loved cooking, shows that Erza is completely wrong about one thing. She never really listened to anything else and then Erza told everyone to leave, her scrutinising gaze falling upon Juvia's back who hadn't noticed it.

Juvia was the only maid assigned to kitchen duty and was the only one to make her way there. The mansion was so huge that she had to cross the lobby where she Natsu coming out of a room, maybe his study or something. She looked around for somewhere to hide, only to find nowhere and stopped dead, hoping he wouldn't look up and just pass her by. He seemed to sense her and he looked up from something that was in his hands to give the person a hard look, but seeing it was Juvia his face softened.

"Hey Juvia, what are you doing here?" He was smiling at her, his eyes warm and his voice deep and cutting. Again, Juvia felt some warmth dance up her back and she sighed from the feeling.

"Um, Juvia was just assigned kitchen duty, and Juvia trying to find her way to the kitchen...Good bye your Highness." She bowed to him and tried to walk past him to find her way around the place, but he grabbed her wrist so gently that she didn't even feel like he was holding her. Juvia gasped and made sure that she didn't make eye contact.

"Your Highness, Juvia really must go!" She heard him chuckle and it set off butterflies through her stomach.

"You clearly don't know your way around here. Let's go." His hand slipped from her wrist and instead, entwined their fingers together. "By the way, call me Natsu. And that's an order." He turned to face her and he flashed a grin in her direction that almost made her heart fall right out of her mouth. She nodded her head and he led her down the grand kitchen. She couldn't help but look at their hands that were joined together. All these things that she had read in books of their hands fitting well together, it was all true! His hand was huge and tanned, yet it fit snuggly around her pale and fragile looking hand.

"We're here," Natsu breathed. Juvia nodded her head yet again, making Natsu laugh. "You don't really talk much, do you?" Juvia was about to shake her head and shrug, but she chose to speak instead.

"Juvia usually speaks when there's no action for her answer." That made Natsu smile. Juvia couldn't help but notice that their hands were still together. Although she was an actual Empress and she was of a high class, a worthy person to be in the presence of a Prince, she didn't feel right. No guy would have ever usually looked at her twice because she was such a 'Plain Jane,' and if she was ever spoken to, it was some man trying to get a higher status. Why has she got the attention of the Prince while she was posing as a maid?!

"Juvia will just go now..." Slowly, she untangled their fingers and Natsu was still watching her carefully and she smiled at him gently before pushing the door open. Natsu couldn't help but look at the door in wonder. He had never seen such a beautiful angel in his life. She was perfect! He now understood what his father was blabbing about when he met his mother. He thought his dad was acting girly and weak, but Juvia made him feel like what he was mocking in his father. But he had only seen her for ten minutes in total, how can he already feel this way?

It must obviously be her beauty that was blinding him, nothing else. He sighed when he remembered that Lucy would be here in a few days, rendering him from actually trying to talk more and more with Juvia. He just wished that Gray would take her himself. Speaking of which, his friend was in his room now.

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"Hey Gray I was wondering, can you court Lucy instead? I don't wanna." Gray's eyes almost flew out of his head as Natsu deadpanned to him.

"WHAT?! I can't just court a girl that my parents didn't pick out for me!" Natsu just shrugged as he fell back on his bed.

"I don't think it matters much who _you _get married to. You're the third child so you won't be King anytime soon." Natsu smirked, knowing fully well that he had angered his friend with that little remark. Unlike Gray, Natsu was an only child, meaning that he had to get married and have kids fast otherwise the line of Royalty would end if he was to die now.

"I'm going to try my best and ignore that you fucking imbecile." Natsu waved off the insult laughing.

"But about Lucy, I really don't feel anything for her. I think there's someone else." Gray raised an eyebrow at his friend, all insults fleeing from his mind. Since when was Natsu ever in _love_?

"Oh? And who is she?" Natsu opened his mouth, ready to tell him that it was like love at first sight, but then he clamped it closed. How could he tell Gray that he, Natsu Igneel the Prince of the Fire Land, fell in love with a simple maid? Not only was he never going to live it down, but the whole Land will hear of it and everything would escalate to his father forcing him to marry Lucy. Natsu sighed. You stick to your own class which was completely stupid.

"It's absolutely none of your business you stupid icicle." Gray's wonder of Natsu's crush died down as he started boil with anger.

"What was that, flame head?" Natsu wasn't really in the mood for their endless bicker and really hoped that Erza would be up here in a minute to stop it. For now he would just try to add fuel to fire.

"I called you an icicle! Are you deaf as well as stupid, Ice princess?"

They both started fighting and as Natsu thought, Erza walked in, causing them to cease their little scrap. Natsu was grateful. It had made Gray forget about what he had asked before. "Both of you, stop acting like useless children and let's go and and have dinner. I'm hungry and I overheard the chefs saying that they were making strawberry shortcake." Erza turned on her heel sharply and swiftly walked out of the room, making Gray and Natsu roll their eyes at her animated love for strawberry shortcake, before they both followed her.

"I also want to know how that Juvia girl got on. The chefs are pretty uptight about who they let into their kitchen. Why do you think they never allowed any maid in there? I let them make this one exception though, but I told them they could roast her if they wanted." Natsu frowned behind Erza's back. Did she have something against Juvia or something? Nah, Erza didn't have anything against anyone. The only one person she truly hated was Mira, the woman who proved she was stronger than her and is now the commander of the entire army. In other words, she's Erza's boss. Erza was just strict meaning that Juvia had done a noob move and Erza was merely trying to show her how strict she can get.

Gray snorted in amusement. Natsu looked at his friend briefly. _"He stepped in her water. He must be happy. This must be like payback for him." _Natsu kept silent until they got to the dining room. They sat down waiting silently for the chefs until they heard giggles and Erza's jaw dropped in surprise. Juvia was holding trays of food and the head chef was wheeling in the rest of it, making jokes with her. Natsu laughed at Erza's face before she kicked his shin to make him shut up. It seemed like her plan backfired.

"Lady Erza, thank you so much for sending this delightful young lady to come and help us out in the kitchen! My goodness, she's an AMAZING cook! I wonder where she's been hiding all this time!" Juvia just blushed and told him to cool it with the compliments. They both set the food on the table and Juvia placed Natsu's dish in front of him. He touched her hand briefly and their eyes connected making Juvia pull back quickly with a flustered look on her face. Erza eyed the food and when Juvia set the cake near her, she gulped.

"So, who made the cake this time?" The chef pointed to Juvia.

"She said where she's from they have a good recipe and I let her try it with you. Try some, Lady Erza." Juvia didn't bother looking at the woman as she just stared at her feet, waiting for an insult to come her way. Erza waved it off.

"I'll eat it when it's time for dessert."

Juvia was about to walk off, but the chef stood in her way and shook his head. "No, no. We have to wait till they're done to see if food was nice." Juvia was confused. This never happened back in her Palace. They trusted their cooks and chefs well enough. But still she shrugged and stood there.

They waited for the three to finish eating as they even spoke, wasting their time completely. Juvia didn't mind and she just stood there leaning against the wall, getting a good look at Natsu. She felt a little tug on her heart every time she was looking at him. She had never met a guy like him. Most of the men she knew were the ones who were up themselves about their titles. Basically, men like Gray. Natsu was the freaking Prince of the Fire Land, yet he didn't even act like one! In fact, he acted like a joker!

His pink hair may have been girly, but Juvia found herself not being to picture it in any other colour. His dark eyes were piercing, but warm and not cold, unlike his counterpart, Gray. Juvia sighed as she watched him, her hand falling over her heart. Until she realised what the hell she was doing. She removed her hand from her chest quicker than she had put it there and she averted her eyes from where she was looking. Luckily no one had noticed that she had done so.

"Is this a new recipe for the chicken wings?" The chef nodded once again pointing to Juvia with a smile on his face.

"This woman is amazing! I've never met such a magnificent chef besides myself! Other than the man who taught me of course. Juvia made the cake, seasoned the wings and even made the smoothie to all of your tastes. She helped me make the other things too." The three pairs of eyes turned to look at her stunned. Juvia blushed and fiddled with her fingers trying to get out of the spotlight.

"Well clearly I made the right choice of sending her to the kitchen, right Chef Pablo?" The chef nodded and Natsu and Gray turned to look at her, their jaws hitting the table. She gave them both a dark look as though to tell them to shut up and that she knew what she was doing the whole time. They both gulped and didn't bother voicing their argument. Natsu was happy with the amount of peppers that had been added. He never usually had enough in his food, but never complained, but it was like Juvia knew exactly how he wanted it. In fact it was getting to the point where it was actually going to hurt his tongue if she added another tablespoon of the pepper powder.

He looked up at her to catch her staring at him. She jumped a little and tried to look away, but she always found herself looking at him. He grinned at her and mouthed a 'thank you' in her direction. She smiled happily before the chef moved forward.

"Well if you're all satisfied and finished, we'll be taking our leave now, your Highness." Natsu nodded, still looking at Juvia out of the corner of his eyes.

He watched as she gently took their plates and placed them on the trolley. Gray and Erza got up and started talking quietly as they exited from the room. Natsu glared at their backs. How could they just leave him here by himself?! Then Natsu saw that the head Chef left Juvia and he smiled. It was like fate was doing this for him. He got up from his seat, taking his plate up the trolley. He stood on the opposite side and Juvia's head quickly snapped up to look at him.

"Uh, Natsu-sama! What are you doing, Juvia was going to pick up your plate for you!" He rolled his eyes, a smile lingering on his face.

"That hurts Juvia. Do you really think that I'm too stupid to take my own plate up? I have got arms." He shot her a charming smile and she blushed in reply.

"Well when Natsu-sama puts it like that, Juvia let you put your own plate away then." She gave him a grin of her own, deciding to come out of her shell. There was no point acting shy right? All the plates had been cleared and Natsu grabbed her hand. Juvia jumped and pulled away her hand, not missing the hurt look Natsu gave her. "Sorry your highness, Juvia was just a bit shocked. You caught Juvia by surprise." She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she also wanted to that she wasn't worth his time. Juvia felt like laughing. _"I'm a Princess, Empress to be and he's just a Prince, a King to be. He shouldn't be worth MY time yet I know he deserves a better girl than me."_

"Well Juvia better go get this stuff washed up right?" She tried to laugh it off but Natsu wasn't laughing.

"Yeah, I guess I should...let you go..." Juvia hated the sad look on his face and sighed mentally.

"Maybe Juvia see you around? If we keep meeting like this, there's no way we won't collide again!" That seemed to raise his spirit and he nodded his head.

"Yeah, I'll see you around, Juvia."

That tingle again. It was every time he said her name like that! He must have had something more than fire magic to his name because he had captivated her heart so quickly. Natsu gave her one last smile before she started pushing the trolley off in the direction of the kitchen. He watched her go before turning around and heading into the direction that Erza and Gray went off into.

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How was it? So far so good? I realized, I've never actually written this sort of story line, you know, one where the characters are Princes and Princesses and stuff. Yeah I know it sounds cliche, but I wanna have a go now! My time to shine lol, I'm just kidding.

Once again guys, please check out the community **SPREAD THE NAVIA **by Lanvia. Also, follow me on tumblr, my name is dark-gothic-lolita and I just usually talk a whole load on manga, try and find out new manga, and also talk about fanfiction!_  
_

Don't forget to rate or hate, flames or floods and please review you guys, I love you all! Spreading the Lolita-love!

Lolita-chan


	2. Chapter 2

Hey Dark Gothic Lolita here!

So guys, I had a little trouble with chapter. Not really the chapter itself, but it's just that every time I tried to upload it into my doc manager, it just wasn't happening! So basically, this is like a day late, so I'm really sorry guys!

But either way, let's all be positive, because the second chapter is here now! I'm really glad that you guys are all enjoying this story so far! Thanks for your love and I love you guys so much! I really thought this wouldn't get as much lovin' but here you all are, wanting more, so here I am, giving you more!

I don't own Fairy Tail or their characters, but I do own the OCs and the story line!

I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors!

ENJOY!

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**For who I am, not what I am**

**Chapter two**

Juvia hadn't been able to see Natsu like they said they had and she sighed in relief. She didn't want to put such stress on her life just yet. After all, she still had to look for someone who may want to court her. Besides, Natsu was going to get married to some Lady Lucy Heartfilia, and how things were going, it seemed like she was a very important person. Juvia huffed as she was stuck scrubbing the floor to throne room yet again.

"The hierarchy in the Fire Land seems to be very different than that of the Water Empire. There it goes Emperor, Grand Duke, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Knight THEN Lord and Lady! If she were a Lady there, there wouldn't be such a fuss. Oh well." She wiped off the sweat from her forehead and stood up, admiring the work that she had done. She grabbed up the bucket before she jumped at the figure at the door. She bowed to the woman after she had gained knowledge that she was a Knightess. She was second in command when it came for the time of war, but in time of peace, she was Natsu's bodyguard. She also hated her boss, the first in command for the army, whoever that was.

"Erza-san, Juvia is done with her work now. Is it up to Erza-san's standard?" She bit the inside of her cheek trying her best not to fall down and stumble or something. She was quite clumsy and she didn't want to embarrass herself. The Scarlet haired woman who lived up to her second name inspected it before looking at Juvia dangerously.

"Who are you?" Juvia flinched at the dominating tone in her voice. She had never been spoken to this way before, and that wasn't because she was a Princess. It was more because Juvia was a calm soul who was never shouted at.

"What...what is Erza-san talking about?" What suddenly brought this up? Had she done something wrong? Had she been found out?

"You're from the Water Empire right?" Juvia nodded her head. At least she hadn't found out her identity. That was the last thing she wanted. Maybe she overheard her talking about home or something. "So then what are you doing here then? Couldn't you be a maid to the Emperor and Empress?" Juvia didn't know how to answer this. She let out a silent breath when Gray came rushing through the door with the biggest smile on his face.

"Erza! Lucy's here! Come on let's go already!" For the first time since Juvia had arrived here, she saw Erza give out a genuine smile before they ran like little children to the front door. Wherever that was. Juvia still didn't know where everything was and the front door was one of them because she was brought in through the servants door round the back. The maids, servants and butlers started running up and down the place but just a little as they were talking.

"Oh my gosh have you seen Lucy-sama today? She's so beautiful! I wish I had blond hair like her. And her figure is to DIE for!" That was all Juvia could hear. She looked down at herself suddenly feeling self conscious about how she looked. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were poorly done and her figure wasn't anything to be jealous of either. Juvia sighed as she grabbed the bucket of water and headed down the cleaning room to dump all the stuff in there. She had never seen this Lucy person and already she knew that she was perfect for Natsu. Well known, popular and loved. In her own country, Juvia wasn't even acknowledged.

She put everything away before she had to go and change into her smarter maid wear. She had to go and help the chef with the rest of the buffet and she wasn't going in there with bleach and wax on her clothes. It would contaminate the food. As soon as she was heading down to the kitchen, she came across Natsu who was just sitting on the stairs. She frowned before walking up to him slowly.

"Natsu-sama? What are you doing here? Lucy-san just arrived so Juvia is pretty sure Gray-sama and Erza-san would want you to be there to see her. Besides, Lucy-san is Natsu-sama's future wife." Natsu looked up at her and she stared at him in the eyes, her breath suddenly disappearing. Why? Why does he have this affect on her?!

"Juvia, I don't want to live a lie. I don't love Lucy in that sense. I love her like she's my sister and that's it. I don't think she's right for me. Besides, I've actually met someone who I think is better for me, even if I haven't gotten to know her well." He reached out for her hand, but she was too shocked to jump like the last time.

"N-Natsu-sama! Juvia is just a maid," she said flatly. Well she was lying, she was a Princess.

He kissed the back of her hand with a grin. "Yeah, and? You're still a person aren't you? A beautiful woman at that." Juvia's cheeks glowed red.

"That's sweet of Natsu-sama, but still." Her voice was nothing but a whisper and Natsu sighed heavily, letting go of her hand.

"If you're worried about Lucy, don't worry. I'm pretty sure she would understand. Besides, she gets on better with Gray than me. She's always hitting me." Juvia giggled at his little pout.

"Juvia needs to go, and so does Natsu-sama. Besides, telling Lucy-san isn't what is bothering Juvia..." They both stood there staring at one another before Natsu turned his back.

"Yeah, I'll see you around, Juvia." He started walking away from her to meet up with the rush. Juvia still stood there watching his back as he left. He knew how to make her insides tingle. It was like he was now doing it on purpose. She sighed, not knowing that her life would ever be this dramatic when she decided to move here.

She made her way into the kitchen and started gathering up the plates of food onto the trolley. The head chef smiled and nodded at her, signalling that she could now take the food. She took her time, making sure that she didn't royally screw up in front of everyone. (**A/N: **Laugh at my pun people) She made her way into a fancier dining room than the one from the other day.

"Gosh Natsu I don't bite! Just come and give me a hug would ya?!" Juvia watched as Natsu reluctantly fell into Lucy's arms and Erza pushed him away.

"Okay, my turn!" Then Gray was pushing her as well and Natsu stood back. He looked up to find Juvia standing there and a smirk found its way on his face.

Lucy started laughing as Erza and Gray were arguing as to who gets to hug her. "Guys, guys! There's enough time for me to hug everyone!"

Juvia then got a good look of this person and she had to hold back her gasp. Yes she was the epitome of beautiful and all that, but Juvia knew her and Lucy most probably remembered her too. Juvia started to panic. _"If she sees me now, I'm doomed! She will spill who I really am!"_

Thinking quickly, Juvia found the closest butler who seemed to be staring at Lucy's chest. "Can you take Juvia's place please? Juvia thinks the chef needs Juvia's help back in the kitchen." He didn't even look at Juvia but nodded anyway.

"Sure, anything to keep me here and look at that hottie." Juvia rolled her eyes and carefully made her way back where she came from.

As she started walking through the kitchen, the chef stopped her. "Juvia! What are you doing here, we have a guest therefore you need to be out there!" Her mind went into overdrive and she quickly clutched her stomach.

"Sorry chef, Juvia isn't in good shape right now." Bringing mother nature into this situation was her best bet right now. The man wasn't in the slightest bit moved and he clicked his tongue at her.

"Go back." He started trying to push her back through the door and she was protesting, but the chef was having none of it.

"Fine, FINE! Juvia will tell you the real reason as to why she doesn't want to be out there..." Juvia grabbed the man's arm and dragged him to the corner of the kitchen. "Juvia is supposed to be looking for someone to get married to, and Juvia had to reduce herself." The chef gave her a weird look and she sighed knowing she would have to spell everything out to him. She looked around and when no one was around, she spoke. Would he believe her? That's what she was scared of.

"Juvia is not really a maid, Juvia is the Princess of the Water Empire and Juvia had to reduce herself to a nobody in order to find a man who would marry Juvia because of Juvia and not just because of Juvia's status, which made Juvia move the Fire Land because no one knows Juvia here, EXCEPT for Lady Lucy who is best friends with Juvia's cousin, Levy meaning that Lady Lucy could blow Juvia's cover!"

Juvia started panting heavily because she had just gotten everything out in one breath. The Chef's jaw had been hanging open ever since she had dropped the bomb on him that she was the Princess. She started looking uncomfortable. "Please don't tell anyone, Juvia just wants to find a nice guy here and get out!" Then she barked out a laugh before pacing up and down. "But what's the point, Juvia bets you don't even believe Juvia. Chef-san must think that Juvia is out of her head! Doesn't help that Juvia speaks third person as well."

The man coughed before bowing down, making Juvia almost scream. "What are you doing?! Just stop! Juvia is not here formally, Juvia is just a maid, remember?" The man was baffled.

"But my Princess, I'm sorry! Now that I know who you are, I can't see you as a maid! I do remember you now that you've said it. You're Juvia Lockser, only child of Emperor and Empress Lockser, heiress to the throne. I know of you because I went to visit my father-in-law in the Water Empire. He taught me everything I know and he's the head chef too."

Juvia's face lit up. "Yamamoto-san!" The chef nodded.

"Yes, he is my father-in-law. You and Natsu-sama are quite alike you know. Never wanting people to respect you so much. It shows how much you were able you fit in. Forgive me, Juvia-hime." She flashed him an exasperated look and he smiled sheepishly.

"Fine then, you don't have to go in there then, maybe just hang around the door instead? Here in the kitchen, we love a little bit of gossip. Like the fact that Natsu-sama has an eye on someone else!" Juvia laughed nervously before standing at the door that was connected to the dining room. She could practically hear Gray and Erza hanging onto Lucy's every last word.

"So my parents are going to be coming in next week. I think yours are too, Natsu." Many chefs and servants started gasping. Next week will be huge then!

"We're all going to discuss the wedding, have the parties and whatever, then boom! Wedding day!" Juvia could imagine Natsu's face right now. He must have been giving Lucy some half-hearted smile. The chef looked at his team.

"Perfection next week, nothing less! Juvia will also be helping right hime- I mean Juvia?" She nodded her head, letting his mistake pass by.

"Wait, mum and dad are going to come?! Ugh, who wants those oldies coming here?" Lucy giggled and everyone started commenting on how much of an angel she was, making Juvia want to puke.

"Okay, let's start preparing dessert! Erm, you there, you can take this trolley in okay?" A random servant started pushing the trolley and Juvia smiled gratefully at the chef. The servant soon returned with a note in his hand. Juvia looked at it weirdly before the chef let her off duty. She quickly ran up to her room and ripped open the letter.

_Meet me at the furthest fountain when everyone has gone to bed._

Juvis stared at the letter weirdly. Who was sending this to her? It was most probably Natsu. She smiled at it. Lucy might be the woman of the night, but at least she was the woman in Natsu's heart. Then her heart sunk. She hated having to lie to him though. She knew that this lie couldn't continue much longer and she was ready for the day she would be caught out.

~x~

By midnight, Juvia was standing at the fountain that in fact looked more like a waterfall. She smiled at it lovingly as it reminded her of the one she had in her own Palace back at home. She sighed as she wondered how her parents were doing. Doing their duties no doubt. She started using her water magic on the fountain and a gasp cut her off. "So Erza was right, you are from the Water Empire." Juvia quickly stopped whatever she was doing.

"Natsu-sama! You scared Juvia." He gave her a lopsided grin.

"Well as you know, Erza is in charge of security and she wants to know what you're doing here. You know how she is, touchy and stuff." Juvia had more than enough time to think of this answer so she threw a smile on her face and answered without any stutters.

"Juvia was just getting a little bored of the Water Empire and decided to see the Fire Land. You know, opposite magic and everything."

Natsu held his hand out to her and she took it hesitantly. His other hand started glowing with fire and she watched it in amazement. He started making a message in the sky and she blushed when she read it. **I like you, or is that too early? **Juvia shook her head at him, giggling.

"We barely know each other and Natsu-sama already has a crush on Juvia? A crush on a maid?" Natsu shrugged his shoulders, his smile broadening.

"Typical Prince and maid story right? There's just something about you that seems more...natural. I can open up in front of you and do whatever I want to do and not get hit on the head for it." He sat down on the bench in front of the waterfall and Juvia sat down next to him, feeling cold. "Here." He wrapped his arms around her and Juvia could instantly feel the extra warmth that she was gaining from and sighed in happiness.

"Thanks a lot, but Natsu-sama really doesn't have to do this. Juvia means..." He sighed.

"Look, forget about Lucy okay? I brought us some dinner. Not as good as yours, but still it's worthy enough for a Princess." Juvia smiled guiltily at Natsu's word choice before Natsu fed her. Her eyes widened in amazement.

"Oh my gosh, what is THAT?!" Natsu smirked.

"Some homemade strawberry yoghurt that my mum taught me. It's my favourite thing." Without even realising it, Juvia opened her mouth again and Natsu laughed, putting another spoonful into her mouth. The both of them spent that next ten minutes laughing and eating before it dawned on Juvia.

"Wait, is this supposed to be a date?" Natsu blushed and Juvia couldn't help but think of how cute he looked.

"Yeah. I've never really asked a girl on a date, they've been the ones to ask me so I didn't know how to do it. Hope you don't mind." Juvia was about to tell him that he shouldn't have done such a thing for her and that she really doesn't deserve him, but when she caught the look on his face, she just had to give him a soft smile.

"No, Juvia really doesn't mind. It's just that Juvia has never been on a date before." He gave her a relieved smile before standing up and taking her hand.

"Well, now you have and the night's not done yet."

He had a wireless boombox as he started playing some music. "May I have this dance, beautiful?" Juvia was ready to faint from how sweet he was. She also felt like crying both from her lies and from the fact that even if she were a maid, he wouldn't care. "Yes Natsu-sama." (**A/N: **Song choice has to be 'I won't give up on love' by Jason Mraz. Listen to it if you've never heard of it before lol)

By the end of the song, they were both smiling at each other. "We better get going now. Time waits for no one." They both started running back to the mansion before separating ways. Juvia fell on her bed with the biggest smile on her face. Maybe by some freak accident, Natsu could be the one she would marry, if she was lucky.

Line Break

Juvia was dusting all of the ornaments in the main room where all the guests were when she heard voices. She started panicking before she found the perfect place to hide. She grabbed up her stuff before hiding behind a bookshelf. Turns out Lucy and Gray were heading into that room. "Gray-kun, I love you so much." Juvia's jaw dropped as she was shocked. They were seeing each other?!

"I love you too Lucy. I just hate that Natsu's dad wants you to marry Natsu! My dad should have been the one to get in line first to arrange with your dad that we both should get married." There was a noise that sounded like kissing to Juvia before she heard Lucy giggle.

"No Gray not here! Someone could walk in on us. Besides, no illegitimate children right?" Juvia wanted to throw up in her mouth and Gray grumbled before they started sorting out their clothes.

"Let's go somewhere else then, just tell Natsu that you're doing something." Juvia heard the door close and she stepped out of her hiding place. At the same time, Natsu came out from another bookshelf from across the room, making Juvia jump.

"GAAAH! Gosh, Natsu-sama scared Juvia AGAIN!" Natsu grinned at Juvia before jumping on the sofa as Juvia started plumping the cushions. She grinned as she grabbed one and hit Natsu with it.

"Oi, Juvia just sorted out that sofa." A gleam went running through his eyes as he grabbed another cushion and hit her with it.

They both started having a cushion fight until Juvia fell onto the sofa next to him with a smile on her face, then she frowned. "Wait, so Natsu-sama was here for the whole Gray-sama and Lucy-san thing then." He gave her a cheeky grin and nodded.

"Yeah, I knew they had a thing for each other, that only just confirmed it. I was just in here to chill out, but then I heard you coming so I hid, then Gray and Lucy came in making it more of a reason to hide."

Juvia inspected the room, seeing that she had done everything she stood up. "That makes sense. Anyway, Juvis needs to get started with the cooking and all that stuff. We're working our butts off for this party." Natsu then looked guilty.

"Actually, the party might not happen. I plan on telling Lucy tonight and I've already sent a message to my parents about it so they don't waste their time." Juvia looked at him in surprise. She couldn't believe he was actually doing this.

"Natsu-sama can't be serious," she muttered more to herself.

"Juvia, I like you too much! You're the only one to actually look at me for who I am, not _what _I am. I like that. It removed a lot of barriers from us." He hugged her and she hugged him back lightly before he pulled away.

"I better get going now, see you later Juvia." He left quickly and Juvia started panicking. He was actually going to do it!

"But we hardly know each other!" Obviously he didn't hear that so instead, she just stamped her foot as though she was a five year old having a tantrum.

She packed up all the dusters before running out of the room.

~x~

Juvia was making her way back over to the kitchen when she heard Natsu and Lucy coming, she quickly jumped into a bush that looked nice and easy to hide in.

"What is it you wanted to talking to me about Natsu?" Juvia rolled her eyes at the fake sweet tone that Lucy was using. She knew and Natsu knew that right now, she could have just gotten out of bed with the Ice Prince. It would have been really painful for Natsu if he was actually in love with Lucy. Natsu looked up at the sky.

"I'm calling this marriage thing off." It took her a while to process, but when she did, Lucy jumped up with a screech.

"WHAAAAAAT?! Natsu, tell me this is a joke, just please."

"Nah, I'm being serious. I can see it in your eyes when you look at Gray, you love him and he loves you. He's a Prince as well, it's not going to hurt your social class is it? You'll be in the same place if you were to marry me. I've just got my eyes on another girl." Lucy sat down in shock and surprise.

"Natsu, I didn't...I didn't know it would come to this. You're right, I love Gray but I guess I went forward with this because our parents had it all setup and I didn't want to go against them."

Natsu shrugged. "Yeah I understand."

Lucy sighed as though a heavy burden had just been lifted off her shoulders before she smiled at her childhood friend. "Who is this woman then? Let me guess, Lisanna?"

Natsu's face fell as he shook his head multiple times. "No way! I see her as more of a sister than you! She's a maid, but don't tell anyone okay? I don't care about social classes." Juvia saw Lucy give him a one armed hug.

"Yeah, you're not a shallow person so you never cared about that stuff. What do you think you're parents are going to say?" Natsu grinned and shrugged.

"If I know my parents well enough, they'll be here tonight giving me the biggest lecture of my life. Luckily I haven't told them just yet."

* * *

When Juvia woke up, she rubbed at her eyes groggily. She groaned and let her head hit the soft pillow again. She didn't know how servants were able to do it and although she was extremely lenient with her servants as it was, she would never have any bad thoughts on ANY of them again. Waking up this early was something that she would have never wanted to do. It made her feel ill.

She got cleaned up and ready for the day when she noticed the note that had been slipped under her door. She raised an eyebrow at the small piece of paper. She picked it up gingerly and when she opened it, she saw that the note had been written in fire. She smiled at it as it was a good morning note from the one and only Prince Natsu Dragneel.

"Natsu-sama needs to stop this, Juvia doesn't deserve it," she said to herself.

She hid the note under her pillow before running down to help start up the breakfast banquet. Seeing as Lucy was here, they all had to work our butts off just to impress her, seeing as everyone still thought that she was getting married to Natsu. And besides, why was the Prince of Ice country even here? Didn't he have his own house and country to stay in?

Juvia was absentmindedly making chocolate filled croissants with all types of eggs. Scrambled, fried and boiled. She saw another chef dealing with the bacon and all the other bits and pieces of the cooked breakfast. Then a bell chimed and everything was on their plates and the trolley.

"Has the table been decorated yet?" Screamed out the head chef. A woman nodded rapidly.

"Yes chef. Flowers, new clean tablecloth and place mats. Was there anything else sir?"

"No, you've done well for now. Now let's get serving! Juvia? You've been requested to help clean all the rooms. This time, it's your turn to clean out his royal Highness' room as well."

Juvia sighed. All the maids took it in turn to clean Natsu's room because it was such a wreckage. It was something that couldn't be avoided and all the women hated doing it so much that you would be stupid to ask another maid to do it for you. She gave him a strained smile.

"Let Juvia guess, ordered by Erza-san herself?" The chef nodded, making the Princess sigh and go ahead to her duties. She was going to to do his room first before he finished his breakfast.

She grabbed the duster before heading up to his room. She politely knocked on the door and when she got no response, she released her shaky breath and went into his room. Her eye twitched. What did he do that made his room look like a tornado hit it? Or maybe the last civil war that happened in the Fire Land was in his room?

"Natsu-sama, this is a joke!" Juvia said in anger. She gritted her teeth as she started slamming all his dirty clothes and underwear that she found on the floor in his laundry basket. She almost vomited when she smelt the disgusting pizza box that was under his bed. Why would he secretly have food when he has a whole load of chefs cooking for him? She was so happy to be wearing plastic gloves because there was no way she would have touched that all bare handed.

She stripped back his sheets and slammed that into the laundry basket too and spread out new ones. When she had finally finished his room, she stood back looking proud of her work. She looked at the time. Thirty minutes it had taken her. Not bad, not bad at all. The only thing she was now dreading was his erm...

_Throne _room.

This is no way was going to be any fun as soon as she was to enter his bathroom.

She finally finished at came out of there coughing her lungs out. "So much toxic waste. That's it, Juvia is putting Natsu on a healthy eating plan to make him stop destroying his toilet with bombs."

She hauled up his laundry basket and all her cleaning things and that was when the bedroom door flew open, making her eyes go wide. The owner of the room then looked at the person with a laundry basket in front of their head. Natsu couldn't see Juvia's face just yet and she sighed in relief.

"Hey, sorry for the weekly mess ONCE again. I know I keep on saying that I'm going to change, but this time I didn't. Just had a lot on my mind and all." Juvia nodded her head, wishing he would just let her go now.

"Anyway, you should probably get going now, I'm taking a shower." Juvia anticipated his movements and quickly turned the basket to cover her face from wherever he was going to be walking. She waited for him to get into the bathroom before she could walk out of his room. She released her breath before going off to clean the other rooms.

~x~

Juvia was tending to the garden when she felt some arms around her waist. She jumped up quickly, a blush covering her whole face and most probably all of her body as she froze. There was only person who would ever do that to her around here.

"Now, I thought I could recognise those sexy legs of yours while you were holding my laundry basket." Now Juvia started stuttering and her mind was extremely blank when she heard Natsu say 'sexy legs.'

"N-Natsu-sama! Juvia needs to w-water all the p-plants!" She thought that would let her off the hook as she tried to pull away from his grip, but she was pinned to his body. The extra body heat he was giving off made her feel like she didn't want to leave him anyway as she tried to focus on steadying her breath.

She felt Natsu's lips on her ears and her breath hitched again, almost making her pass out from the lack of oxygen. "N-Natsu-sama..."

"Juvia, I really _really _like you. This may sound cliche but I really see something in you that I've never seen elsewhere. Either you have the intention of catching my eye with your innocence or this is really how you are, I'm not yet sure and until that illusion ends, I'll keep on liking you. No matter what."

Juvia bit her lip in order to stop herself from spilling everything about her. She wanted to tell him the truth about everything. About she's actually a Princess just like he's a Prince. How she's royalty and that she's going to control an empire soon. She wanted to say all this, but something kept her from it. What if Natsu just wanted to get married to a commoner because he found them more refreshing and he wanted nothing to do with anyone with a noble status? She would never get over him leaving her.

"Ano...Natsu-sama? Can Juvia continue with her work please?" He finally released her, but he did so very slowly and reluctantly, an annoyed look written all over his face from how she was no longer in his arms. Juvia giggled at his annoyed pout which made him smirk in return. "Also, Juvia thanks Natsu-sama for the cute note this morning. It was...well, cute!"

Natsu blinked at her in surprise before his cheeks were dusted light pink. Usually, it was him giving out the compliments because she was so reluctant to make the both of them work, but it seemed like she was coming out of her shell now because she called it cute, indirectly calling HIM cute!

"Free for another late night picnic today?"

Juvia looked up at him and nodded shyly once more. "Yes, Juvia is free." She bit her lip and Natsu smirked at her gently.

"That's good. I'll see you then."

As soon as he turned away from her and started walking away, Juvia's knees became weak as she collapsed on a bench feeling flustered. She didn't know what it was that she had done to catch the attention of Natsu, but she was glad that she had done.

"Just what is your game with the Prince?"

Those words made Juvia snap up in surprise and she turned around to find Erza climbing out a nearby bush. Fear struck through Juvia as it was so very clear that Erza had been there the whole time. Now the scarlet haired woman was glaring at Juvia ferociously and it was going to be a far cry from easy for Juvia explain herself.

"E-Erza-san," she said weakly. The poor Princess was in deep trouble. She couldn't just randomly pull out her status name here and now, though she was seriously thinking of doing it just to tame the Knightess. She was scaring the water right out of her now.

"Is the Water Empire looking for a war because I can tell you this now, they will lose. We will crush everyone of your useless water army and splash them out like they're puddles. You can go back home now. Not much of a spy are you."

Juvia was shocked. Then she was hurt at the words that had been flung at her. She thought she was _seducing _the Prince for her own use?! Then she was angry. NO ONE mouths off the Water Empire like that. She could insult her all she wanted, but the water empire had gone through trial times to become an empire, which might she add, is the ONLY empire still standing.

"Juvia is NOT here to seduce the Prince! Juvia just left the comfort of her own home to find love here because everyone that Juvia knew found her boring or used her to find some friends, so Juvia came to the Fire Land and she needed a job, so she came to the palace because there was an easy opening. Juvia is CLUELESS with love and she has no idea what she is doing, talk less of _seducing _the Prince! But if Erza-san so badly wants Juvia to leave the Prince alone, she shall."

She didn't know why the tears started rolling down her face, but they did. They were hot tears of anger. Anger in protection for her people and angry that she would never in her whole entire life find love anyone in peace. Even the people around her didn't want her finding love and she wasn't even _known_!

"Juvia is just destined to be alone..."

~x~

Juvia was standing at the side of the training grounds as she watched Natsu and Gray fighting. Apparently, this is what they did every time one went to visit the other, just to see who was the stronger opponent now. Natsu had assigned Juvia to be his first aider, but when Erza tried to argue against it, Natsu had glared at her which silenced the Knightess. Natsu never glared when he was serious about something.

Their fight was somewhat beautiful. The flames and the ice was just so interesting to watch. They were both strong, that was for sure, but it almost seemed as though the fight was a visual effect show. With the flames adding heat and then the ice coming back making everyone shiver. The only people not affected was Erza because she was powerful for a reason and Juvia because of her water magic.

Juvia saw the smile that was resting on Natsu's lips. It was like this was the moments that he lived for. It was so evident that he loved his magic and that he loved fighting. It made Juvia smile in return as she couldn't take her eyes off of him. When she did, she saw Erza glaring at her and shaking her head at her. Juvia suddenly lost the smile that she wore on her face. Her eyes fell to the ground remembering what she had told Erza.

Finally, after the fight, the two Princes were bickering as Erza then grabbed them both by their hair and banged their heads together. "That time it was a draw. You were both too distracted for this fight."

Gray blushed before looking over Natsu's shoulder and at Lucy. She was being shaded and fanned by some servants so that the magic of the two men wouldn't affect her.

Natsu looked over Gray's shoulder to where Juvia was holding a first aid kit and looking at him right in the eyes. She blushed before looking away.

"Now go and get cleaned off, the both of you?" They stuck their tongues out at her back as soon as she was turned.

"I know what you're doing, and if you value your tongues, you would stick them back into your head otherwise I would do it for you."

She didn't even need to turn around but both men stopped before grumbling and walking off.

Natsu started grinning as he made his way over to Juvia. The Princess in hiding made sure that Lucy wouldn't be able to see her face if she decided to look in their direction. Natsu sat down in the chair and Juvia used her magic to clean him off and wash out any cuts.

"So how was that? I was good wasn't I?"

Juvia smiled before getting the plasters. "Eh Natsu-sama was _alright, _but he didn't win, did he?" Juvia gave him a dramatic sigh as though she was highly disappointed in him. Natsu's face fell.

"I can go and fight him again right now, and I'll win just for you-"

Juvia shook her head as she laughed out. "Juvia was just joking Natsu-sama! Juvia thought it was a good fight, but because Natsu-sama was distracted, like Erza-san said, there were so many openings that even Juvia could attack you from. Just be lucky that Gray-sama was distracted as well."

Natsu pouted and Juvia saw Erza out of the corner of her eye. Juvia deflated before putting the remaining plasters and bandages on him. She pulled away and grabbed the rest of the kit.

"Thanks Juvia, you really fixed me up-"

"Natsu-sama should stop bothering Juvia." She couldn't look at him. She knew he would be shocked but she didn't want to turn around and look at the face he would give her. She wasn't ready for that. She just continued.

"Juvia doesn't want to be the cause of any arguments here, she just wants peace and not to be judged or seen as a spy from the Water Empire."

"Seen as a spy? Wait, did Erza put you up to this? I swear if it's her..."

Juvia turned to face him and sighed. She had to make this believable.

"Erza-san didn't put Juvia up to anything. Juvia has just seen how ridiculous it is to fall in love with the Prince. Juvia is only thinking about the reality, nothing more, nothing less."

Natsu kept on looking at her as though he couldn't believe that this was the same woman he had come to love. "You're serious."

"Deadly serious. Just leave Juvia alone."

Juvia hadn't meant for it to come out that harshly, but it did and she regretted it, but they were words. Once they were said, you couldn't take it back.

Natsu laughed shakily. Gray, Lucy and the rest of the servants were already gone, leaving Erza to watch what would happen between the two of them.

"Is that what you really want from me? So you don't even care that I like you?"

Juvia's facade almost broke, but she kept it strong. She had to make herself look evil to make sure that Natsu would definitely leave her alone.

"Juvia doesn't care. Juvia didn't come here looking for love."

She was in too deep now. This lie of hers was going to come back and bite her in the arse soon enough.

Natsu moved back. "Fine then."

Juvia watched as he made his way towards him and when Erza had tried to pretend like she didn't know what was going on and ask him what was wrong, his flames erupted. His hands and his hair was on fire and Juvia jumped as she watched. Even though she was nowhere near him, she was still surprised.

"Don't come near me Erza."

The Prince was then gone as Juvia let her tears flow freely. Erza went up to her.

"What on Earthland just happened here? I've NEVER seen Natsu that angry before." Erza's eyes then widened when she saw the tears and the strong look in Juvia's eyes.

"Juvia did what Erza-san told her to do. Juvia hopes you're happy now."

Before she would start sobbing in front of the Knightess, she ran off in the opposite direction to go and cry.

Erza watched her run before she turned her head to where Natsu ran before sighing and feeling guilty.

"They really were in love, and here I was, thinking I was protecting the Prince from potential danger when _I'm _the one who ended up hurting him! Oh gosh, what have I done?"

* * *

Sooooo? How was that?

Terrible? Yes I know that, I'm really sorry! I think I mucked up on the POV (I've forgotten if I did or if I didn't) and uuuugh! I hate re-reading my chapters/stories because they make me cringe! Seriously guys, what do you _SEE_ in my stories?! Eh, I should stop knocking myself down lol.

Surprisingly, without the A/N, this chapter hit 6,650 words and I was certainly not aiming for that...Oh well, it looks like you guys got a long chapter out of me! I didn't even think of the Natsu vs Gray part of the chapter till yesterday really, I thought it was good!

Please don't forget to rate or hate, flames or floods! I love you guys and your reviews so let me hear some good stuff or bad stuff! I'll love you all the same!

Lolita-chan

P.S. I don't care if I've said this a lot right now, but check out Lanvia's community of SPREAD THE NAVIA and damn well follow it! Tehee, okay!

P.P.S Holic is a cool person! (Hahahaha, I just made a shout out, did I embarrass you? :D)


	3. Chapter 3

Hey Dark Gothic Lolita here!

So as you can see, I've brought out a brand new chapter! Woop woop, chapter 3 guys!

I could have gotten this out earlier than this, but since I had that little scene with Gray and Natsu, then Juvia and Natsu's argument happen, I had to change all of chapter 3 that I had already written before. I always seem to do this to myself lol.

I keep on forgetting to thank all my guest reviewers! I love you guys so much and thank you for your positive reviews, but I can't say thank you to you all personally because I can't PM you all!

I feel like this chapter somehow went WRONG somewhere, but I don't know where...meh

I don't own Fairy Tail or their characters! I apologize for any spelling and grammatical errors, but we know I will always have them lol

ENJOY!

* * *

**For who I am, not what I am**

**Chapter three**

Lucy was staring out of her room window for a while with a frown. Even though Natsu had already told her he didn't want to get married to her, she still stayed at his place because they had to tell both their parents, and because she hadn't seen her friends in a very long time. She lived elsewhere, and Gray was usually in the Ice Country, so for all four of them to hang out was rare.

"There's something about this rain..." She opened her window and stuck her hand out so that she could get a feel of the rain. She gasped before bringing her hand back in and closing the window.

"I know this magic from anywhere! It HAS to be the Water Princess! But why is she here? Scratch that, why is she so upset anyway? Dammit, what was her name again?"

The door opened and Lucy turned around to see the greeting eyes of Gray. She grinned at him before she ran to meet him and hug him. "Hey Gray, what's up?"

"Nothing, we're all hanging out downstairs because of the rain. It's been raining non-stop for days!"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah it has been...Anyway, you guys managed to get Natsu out of his room? With the mood he was in, that must have been pretty hard."

Gray nodded his head. Natsu was never angry. Natsu was an idiot, and a very immature person. Sure he would get pisseed if you called him names, but so did Gray, it was their sort of friendship. That's what they did. But never angry. Gray had never seen Natsu so angry that he was at the point of having his hair on fire. His magic never let him reach to that point.

"Obviously Erza was the only brave enough to go and get the idiot out of his room, but even then, she couldn't go into his room for a long time. Turns out her Fire Empress suit wasn't even strong enough to withstand the flames. In return, that pissed Erza off and she says she's going to have to go back into training. Clearly if she's not strong enough against Natsu's flames, she's also not strong enough against Mira in her Sitri form."

Lucy shivered and they pushed open the door. They saw Lisanna, Elfman, Erza and Natsu. Natsu wasn't at all happy, but still, he was there. "Lisanna, Elfman! I haven't seen you guys in ages!"

Lucy ran up to the white haired siblings and hugged the life out of them. "Yeah, Erza contacted us today saying something about a very upset Prince." Lisanna whispered in Lucy's ears so that Natsu wouldn't hear them. It seemed like he had calmed down because his magic wasn't present and he was just sitting there with his arms crossed staring into space with a faraway look in his eyes.

Lisanna clapped her hands. "Okay guys, let's play some games!"

~x~

Lucy was running down the hall, away from everyone else. Turns out, when Lisanna says, 'let's play some games,' she really MEANS 'let's play some games'! Now, they were currently playing hide and seek magic. Rules? You have to hide and when you're found by the person who was seeking, they get to attack you with magic. Lucy really didn't want to get her outfit messed up.

When she was so sure she was well away from everyone else, she brought her running to halt and stopped to get her breath back. She sighed and wiped away the imaginary sweat that had supposedly formed on her brow. She started walking instead as her mind was now occupied by the rain. She knows she's felt that magic before, it's wasn't ordinary rain. Rain in the Fire Land felt hot, almost like acid rain, but it didn't hurt. This rain felt cool and it seemed to glitter in the sky.

"That _has _to be the Water Princess' rain, there's no doubt about it. I wonder if her family are here for something..."

It was well known across the Water Empire that the Princess had been born with high levels of magic, that she could even conjure the rain when she wanted to. When she was young, because she had no control over it, the glittering rain only showed up when she had no control over her feelings. If she was sad, it would rain, if she was angry, it would rain. Even if she was beyond excitement, it would still rain and a rainbow would be present.

Everyone in the Water Empire was used to it, that they were disappointed that Juvia finally knew how to control the weather, only showing up when her mind was in turmoil and she was absolutely upset.

"Geeze, what was her name again?"

When she rounded the corner, she jumped when she saw a figure, but immediately relaxed. She thought it was Elfman, who was 'it' and she didn't feel like getting attacked by him. Instead, she saw it was a maid with a surgical mask over her face and her hair tied back in a bun. She saw some blue wisps falling from the hair net, indicating that she was from the Water Empire.

"Hi!"

The maid jumped from the overly cheerful voice of Lucy and when she turned around, she jumped again. She had just been cleaning a room that required very strong bleach, hence the mask and hair net.

"Oh, sorry for scaring you! I'm just playing a game with the others and I'm hiding! Anyway, have you seen the rain outside? It's not normal you know. I know who's causing this rain. The Water Princess is clearly in the Fire Land, but she's upset."

Lucy watched as the maid moved all her cleaning equipment into the storage room that she was standing in front of. "You're from the Water Empire aren't you? I can tell by your blue hair. You're from the long descent of the water aborigines!" (**A/N: **A good majority of the Water Empire is full of aboriginal people (for the sake of this story) and they all have blue hair, doesn't mean they're part of royalty)

The maid nodded her head, making Lucy smile at how smart she sounded. "That's just the reason why I'm telling you because you must clearly know this rain. I can't remember her name though...I'm a really good friend of her cousin's though-"

"Juvia."

Lucy blinked at her. They stood there for a while and Lucy wondered if she was going to repeat herself or not, then she finally got it. "OH! Her name is Juvia! Yeah, Princess Juvia! I mean I've never really spoken to her, but I've seen her. But yeah, I remember now! Her name is Juvia! She's a really nice person from what I've seen."

There were footsteps a few corridors away from them and Lucy panicked.

"Well I have to go! I don't know who that is, but if that's Elfman, I don't want to get found out by him! Goodbye maid-san, sorry I didn't get your name!"

As soon as Lucy was off, the maid removed her surgical mask and wiped her tears. "Juvia...Juvia's name is Juvia," she whispered softly to herself.

It turns out that the person Lucy was running from was actually Natsu. The Prince wasn't even trying hard in running away, but instead just strolling angrily through his home. He heard the storage door shut and when he looked up, he caught sight of the girl who had smashed his heart into pieces.

Juvia noticed that the footsteps had stopped and when she looked up, she saw him. The guy that she had to sever her ties with was standing right there, glaring at her. Her breathing stopped and it wasn't at all for the right reasons. She was trying her best not to have a breakdown in front of him.

He cut his eyes from her as he turned around to go the way he came from. Juvia bit her bottom lip so hard, it drew blood and she too turned to go down the way Lucy came. She accidentally let a choked sob pass through her lips and the rain outside increased.

Natsu heard the sob and although he wanted to turn back around, he didn't. Why should she be upset when she was the one to stop things from moving forward?

* * *

After Lisanna and Elfman had to return back home, Natsu was sitting out in gardens by the waterfall in the rain. Erza had followed him and she had an umbrella. She went over to him and out the umbrella over his head as he was now drenched in the rain.

"What are you doing out here? It's almost dinner time and your favourite was made. The whole meal was spicy, courtesy of Juvia..."

Just even by hearing her name made Natsu grit his teeth in anger. He got away from Erza's shelter and stood closer to the waterfall.

"Erza, just get lost. Why can't I ever have some peace and quiet by myself huh? I don't care if it's your duty, just do me this favour and leave me alone."

Erza wanted to say something, but she closed her mouth, knowing that she was the cause of his sadness and depression. "Okay, I understand that you want to be alone, but why don't you go to your room? Why are you outside in the rain for? Won't it affect your magic for a while?"

Natsu just stared up at the glittering rain and smiled slightly. "It's like the rain and I feel the same way. Even though the rain and fire don't mix so well, it's like we can agree on one thing this time and that's that we're in pain. I don't even care that the rain could drown me, it just feels like we're one."

Erza backed away from Natsu. When he started saying things that had deeper meanings, it was time to back away because Natsu wasn't that sort of person. Erza sighed. "Well, come and eat when you feel like it."

Natsu didn't even look at her as she just started walking away. She had to make things right.

~x~

After dinner, Erza was talking to Lucy. "This rain has gone on for quite a while hasn't it?" Erza nodded in agreement.

"Yeah and Natsu's out there right now, enjoying every bit of it. I don't know why."

"That's because it's not ordinary rain. It's powered by magic." Erza looked at Lucy with wide eyes, as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Lucy elaborated.

"The rain in the Fire Land isn't like this, right? This one actually feel cold and refreshing. The Princess of the Water Empire has so much magic that when she feels great sadness, she makes it rain, called the '_tears of a Princess_.' No matter her emotion, she always had tears. Laughing to the point of crying, anger to the point of hot tears and being upset. I'm pretty sure Princess Juvia is upset with the way the rain hasn't let up yet."

If Erza had some sort of beverage in her mouth, the liquid would have spewed out of her mouth for sure. Unfortunately, Erza had just decided to sip on her hot chocolate that she was using to wash down her strawberry cake, resulting in the hot drink flying out of her mouth and her choking. Lucy stared at her friend in shock and disgust. Luckily, Erza hadn't spat the drink out at her.

"O-oh so-sorry! I was just a l-little surp-surprised!" Erza was coughing, trying to get the drink away from her airpipe as she could barely talk. Lucy just nodded her head.

"Okay, well I think I'll just go and find Gray while you go and clean up."

Erza nodded, hitting her chest repeatedly to stop her coughing. Lucy got up with a worried look before Erza smiled at her, showing her she's okay. As soon as Lucy left, Erza called for a butler. The man came rushing towards her.

"Get. Me. Juvia. NOW!"

The butler jumped and ran into the kitchen to go and find where Juvia was and Erza sat there, angry that she had just splashed herself with her hot chocolate.

The butler came running back. "Lady Erza, Juvia has been sent to work for the King and Queen for a little while and will not be back for another 2-3 weeks."

Erza nodded her head and waved him away. She sat there, pondering why a Princess would be working in a foreign land as a maid above all things.

* * *

So how was that you guys? Did you guys enjoy my chapter? I hope you did because it seemed to go horribly wrong! Everything is all being planned last minute! Like the 'hide and seek magic' part was only thought of yesterday! Can you believe that?! It was so random lol.

Just so you guys know, this isn't a real **A/N. **I just wanted to pretend that the chapter was over lol. Let's continue shall we?

* * *

**Three weeks later**

Juvia was finally back from the King's palace. They had needed more staff because the Queen was destroying a whole bunch of things. Turns out that she had found out that Natsu wasn't getting married to Lucy and let's just say she wasn't at all happy.

Juvia sighed when she thought about Natsu and the way that she hurt him. She had cried herself to sleep every night she was there and she thought about Natsu. The rain wasn't stopping, no matter how hard she had tried to stop it.

She wiped her tears away as she thought back to the way she shot Natsu down. His face, the pain in his eyes, she could remember it all and it was so painful to think of.

She heard a knock at her bedroom door and wiped her tears faster. She left her unpacked suitcase on her bed and went to the door.

Juvia sniffed as she opened up her door to see Erza giving her a horrible glare. Juvia didn't even care that her hair was like a lion's mane and that it was all over the place. Her eyes were red and puffy from her tears.

Erza just stared at her and Juvia stared back at her before moving out of her way. "Erza-san should come in. Juvia hasn't really had time to unpack ever since she got in last night from-"

"I know who you are, Princess."

Juvia froze and Erza knew it was true. Erza shut the door behind her and crossed her arms over her chest before walking into the room .

"So it is true...Princess Juvia...How did I not even know? I am such a terrible person, I didn't even know that royalty was in front of my face! I was so rude to you as well! This is why Mira is still my boss, I make petty mistakes like this!"

In her fit of anger, Erza stood up and punched the dresser that was standing there so innocently. Juvia's jaw dropped as she watched the Knightess punch the wooden item in half.

Erza sighed and turned around to Juvia who flinched.

"How did Erza-san find out?"

"Lucy was talking about the rain and she said 'Princess Juvia.'"

Juvia made an 'oh' face before sighing and walking over to her bed. Erza watched her carefully and uncrossed her arms. Juvia pushed her hair out of her face.

"So what are you doing here, Juvia-hime? Why are you posing as an-"

"Oh please! Don't call Juvia so formally, she's not here on a formal visit! Please, just Juvia is fine."

She smiled softly at Erza and Erza froze. Here was one of the most powerful people in all the world, and she was posing as a _maid, _telling a mere Knightess to call her by her name with no TITLE?!

"As for answering Erza-san's question, well it's easy. Juvia is now 21 and she needs to get married to continue the line. Juvia isn't really pretty so no guy wants to marry her back in the Water Empire and if they do, it's for Juvia's title. Juvia only came out here acting like a maid who would get the attention of someone without a title. Juvia never expected to catch Natsu-sama's attention, Juvia is sorry for the trouble. Juvia should just go home now."

Her face fell and she stood up. Erza felt ashamed for all her accusations and for telling Juvia to stop going after Juvia.

"Juvia-hime-"

"Juvia."

"I can't do that. Now I know you're a Princess, I just can't"

Juvia sighed. This is what she had wanted to avoid in the first place and now she was here. Why couldn't she just be seen as a regular human being?

"Juvia-hime, why don't you just tell Natsu the truth?"

Juvia was exasperated as she paced around the room. Erza could see that this was something she might have been trying to do. "Juvia would like to, but she can't! She doesn't want Natsu-sama's attention! It wasn't something she was aiming for and now Juvia is in this mess!"

She fell back onto the bed and put her head in her hands and Erza sighed as she looked at the now broken dresser. "It's not hard to tell him you're a Princess."

Juvia looked up at her. "But Juvia fell in love with Natsu-sama and Natsu-sama fell in love with Juvia, the maid. Not the Princess."

Erza thought about it before she had an idea. She smirked and Juvia actually felt scared. She leaned away from her while Erza just came closer to her. "What if I got Natsu to spend some time with you and you tell him?"

Juvia thought about it. It wouldn't hurt to do so...Plus, seeing Natsu again didn't seem like such a bad idea.

She nodded her head, her resolve unshakable. "Juvia will do it." She didn't want to live this lie anymore. It was time to come clean.

~x~

Erza watched as Juvia clung onto Natsu's arm as they had their lunch privately, away from where anyone would see them. She smiled as she watched them both laughing and she couldn't help but feel like she was the nanny in Romeo and Juliet, making sure they weren't seen together by other people. Natsu had never been better. His anger had thundered throughout his home and all the staff had been worried and even frightened. This was a guy that was childish and they were annoyed by his pranks.

She had managed to pull him out of his room once again and she explained everything. When he saw Juvia, he had hugged her tightly to his body and she hugged him without any hesitation. Erza couldn't believe she had kept them away from each other for so long.

Erza actually thought that they looked like a cute couple. She wasn't one that cared about social classes and that they should only marry within themselves, yet here she was, enforcing it. She had been so caught up in trying to please the Queen that she had forgotten what love really was about, when she was keeping two people away from their own love. She wondered what a certain Knight from the Water Empire would say.

"Juvia, I missed you so much, don't ever do that to me okay? Even if Erza tells you to."

Juvia blushed as Natsu ran his hand over her cheek and she looked into his dark eyes. She saw that he was hurt by her absence and that made her fall even deeper. She had never been the object of someone's affections before and it felt good to be wanted, to be missed, to be _LOVED! _She didn't want this feeling to end.

"Juvia will never do it again, Natsu-sama."

Erza felt bad. She felt bad that she had been the wall that stood in between them for the past few weeks. It must have hurt, to be in the same house as someone that you love but you didn't get to see them all because of one person assuming bad things about you. What had made Erza feel even worse was that Juvia didn't even hold a grudge against her. She just merely hugged her and smiled like it wasn't her fault, when really, it was.

She smiled softly and almost 'awwed' when she saw Natsu feeding her some food. Also, a for a girl to be able to handle Natsu's eating habit without even batting an eye must really show love for the guy, Princess or not.

Juvia laid her head on Natsu's shoulder and smiled up at him. His eyes were closed and the breeze ran through his soft rose coloured hair. He looked like he was only living in the moment and not caring about anything else. Juvia sighed in content and Natsu laughed a little, making Juvia give him a questioning glance.

"You sighed on my neck and it tickled."

Only Natsu would say something as childish as that and while Erza rolled her eyes at the comment, Juvia only laughed at it. "Oh, so Natsu-sama is ticklish then?"

"WHAT?! NO! WAIT, STOP!"

It was too late. Juvia had already started tickling the Fire Prince and he doubled up laughing while Erza watched in amusement what the cute couple was doing. She then sighed. Her own love interest was stuck in the water empire as he was a Knight there and she was a knightess here.

Finally, after Natsu tried to catch his breath, he hugged Juvia close to him.

"I really, _really _like you."

Juvia grinned. "And Juvia really _really _likes Natsu-sama. Oh and Erza-san, come and eat with us! Sorry we made Erza-san stand there the whole time!" Erza blinked at Juvia and shook her head.

"No, no. That would be intruding."

Natsu scoffed. "Yeah, because that's never stopped you before. Haven't you burst in on me while I was having a shower once? Invasion of privacy much?"

Juvia blushed when she heard that because her mind was innocent and pure. Just picturing Natsu naked almost made her faint. Erza just dismissed Natsu's words with an easy wave of her hand. "Oh please, it's not like I haven't seen it all before. Remember, we used to shower together when we were kids?"

Now that made Natsu blush as he almost screamed in frustration. He doesn't want Juvia to know that! "Juvia, just...just ignore what she says, this is so embarrassing."

Erza sat with them and ate her own fill while they were talking with each other.

"So does Erza-san have her eyes on someone?"

That question made Erza's face go the same colour as her hair as she looked away while eating some cake. Natsu laughed, an evil gleam in his eyes. "Yeah, she does actually. He's a Knight in the Water Empire and his name is Jellal. They have the hots for each other but they're sooo shy to say it."

Natsu started making immature kissing noises that resulted for him to be cupping his cheek in agony as he had pissed off the Knightess. Juvia was surprised. Erza was Jellal's mystery girl? It made sense, he did say she was a Knightess in the Fire Land who was a brute of a girl. Boy did he hit the nail on the head.

"Why doesn't Erza-san talk about him much?"

Erza sighed in response. "He has his duties and I have mine. Well from what I've heard, it's easy for him to be let off duty so easily. He just needs to get the okay from the_ Princess_ and he's home free. I on the other hand, have my hands full. I have a little immature brat to look after." Erza emphasised the word 'Princess' so that Juvia would get the hint to tell the truth.

"Oh really, who's the immature brat?"

Erza sent Natsu a chilling glare and he finally caught on that it was him and he pouted. Juvia laughed softly once more. She knew what she had to do. She just had to send a message home for Jellal to get some time off and come and see his beloved. Erza would be so happy! Juvia then turned her attention to the Prince and she bit her lip. She had the urge to do something, but she didn't know how Natsu would take it.

Finally, she gathered enough courage to do what she wanted to do. She removed Natsu's hand from his cheek and when he was about to ask her what was wrong, she gently placed a small kiss on his cheek. All three of them were quiet as Natsu's jaw dropped and Erza's eyes widened. Juvia moved her lips away from his skin with a tomato like blush.

"Juvia should really be getting back to work now." She quickly stood up to her feet and Natsu grabbed her hand. She gasped. This was an extremely heavy thing. He stood up with her and Erza scoffed while finishing off the last of her cake..

"Making the girl make the first move Natsu? Chivalry really is dead."

Natsu didn't even bother listening to Erza as he was just staring at the beautiful and most shy woman in front of him. He couldn't believe that she just did that. He smiled at her which made all her doubt wash away and she smiled back. That was until her face fell.

"Actually, Juvia needs to tell Natsu-sama something-"

"THE KING AND QUEEN ARE HERE!"

Natsu's eyes widened in horror when he heard all the servants moving around and his parents' noisy entourage. He knew what this meant. His mother was going to have his arse served to him on a hot silver platter.

"I guess I'll see you later Juvia!"

Natsu started running off and Erza and Juvia gave each other a horrified look. Their plan was ruined. "Tell him when we gets a moment to breathe. I don't know when that will be, but you'll get your chance."

Juvia nodded and sighed. "Juvia hopes so. She really does."

* * *

OKAY, NOW it's done! For real this time. No extra bit to the chapter. Not gonna read anything until chapter 4! I wonder how many people wanted to kill me when they saw the fake A/N lol!

Guys, I am soooo tired right now. It's only like 10:30 pm and I'm shattered. I need to sleep. I can't go on. OH MY GOD I HATE SCHOOL. Just seems so pointless and boring and hopeless and life draining. Gosh I feel so negative lol. Don't worry, I'm not depressed, just extremely tired. But really, it's only been the second day (because we went back on Tuesday. Some lucky arsehole friends of mine went back TODAY), I get at least 6 hours of sleep and I feel like utter CRAP. I'm sorry I can't be anymore upbeat in my A/N today guys.

I really REALLY tried to update for you guys and I know that this chapter was a mess because I'm so damn tired! I think tomorrow I'm just going to sleep from lik 6pm and get a good 12 hours of sleep. I am so tired. UUUUGH. My eyes are drooping. I shouldn't have rushed this chapter, but I really wanted you guys to have it. Sorry if it's not up to he 'Lolita standard' that you guys might have been expecting but I am so going to hit the hay after this is uploaded.

Please don't forget to rate or hate, flames or floods! Give me reviews darlings, and I'll give ya some Lolita-love!

Goodnight guys. Well, good morning to people in Australia, or China, or Japan etc and...well sucks for you if you're in America and you're still in school. Don't worry, I'm tired too. zzzzzzzzz

Lolita-chan


	4. Chapter 4

Hey Dark Gothic Lolita here!

So I guess that I AM updating this today then! Yes, I know this is a big achievement for me, updating two things in one day when I'm on a busy schedule. Oh well, shows how much I love you guys I guess! You're all pretty amazing people to keep on reading my stories! Give yourself a biiiiig huuuug!

Anyway, I don't own Fairy Tail or their characters! I apologize for any shitty spelling and grammar!

ENJOY!

* * *

**For who I am not, not what I am**

**Chapter four**

"What do you MEAN you're not going to get married to Lucy? Do you know how long we planned for this wedding? Now you're telling us you fell in love with a maid?! How could you? How could you disgrace us like that? STOP YOUR STUPID SMIRKING!" Natsu couldn't help it, he found it all really funny. He just sat on the sofa shrugging his shoulders as Erza, Gray and Lucy sat around them. The Queen sighed in frustration as she rubbed at her temples.

The message had finally gotten to Natsu's parents about his decision on marrying Lucy. They had immediately made their way out to see their only son and his mother wasn't at all happy with his choice. Lucy shrunk back as she held onto Gray's hand. She didn't want to be the subject of anger for the Queen right now.

"Lighten up would ya?! I have someone else in mind that I really want to get married to. Well, I like her and she likes me back. So what if she's a maid?"

His mum made a noise that was so similar to a depressed whale. The King was just sitting there the whole time looking like he was trying to sleep. When his wife went on a rampage, you let her do so until she calms down.

"Yes, a maid! A MAID?! Natsu, what are you doing with yourself?! You're a Prince who is next in line for the throne and you want to marry some _commoner_?! I have never heard of such a thing. No, we have already set up another marriage."

Natsu stood up in anger, steam erupting from his nose and the same with his mother. Her hands were set alight as a warning to show Natsu that she was still his mother, Queen or not.

"Why do I have to marry someone because of their nobility?! Why can't I choose and marry someone for love because I'm pretty sure they would make a better wife! She'll be way more down to Earth and let's face it, I'm not exactly the type of guy a girl wants! I'm a mess and many people would think that _I'm _the commoner!"

Natsu was furious. He didn't want to have to deal with this. His eyes flittered over to his dad, as though he was asking for his help, but he knew he wasn't going to butt in. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"I don't care about what you want, I know what's right for you. Now, thanks to you, I had to plan another marriage."

Natsu's eyes darkened and his three friends wondered if it was still okay to be in the room seeing as this was clearly a family issue.

His mother nodded. "Yes. I have invited over the Water Emperor and Empress. Please bring them through, Erza-chan." Erza bowed and walked out of the door. Natsu glared at his mother, not even believing his luck. He had just about had enough. What was wrong with a maid? A beautiful, down to earth maid?! She didn't even seem to be after his title!

"Everyone, the Water Emperor and Empress."

Erza pushed open the door and bowed once again before letting in the only two people in the world to have the highest status. Natsu, Gray and Natsu's parents were the only ones excused from bowing down to them as the four of them were royalty, but Lucy had to bow.

Natsu looked over at the two royalties. The Empress looked familiar, but he couldn't put his hand on it. He knew that most people from the Water Empire had blue hair, hence why Juvia had blue hair.

"Emperor and Empress, please come and sit." The man and the woman smiled at everyone there before taking a seat.

"I must say Ikaruga, you kitted your son out very well. He has a lovely home." Before anything else could happen, both the Queen and Empress were soon talking to one another. A bell was rung and suddenly maids and servants started wheeling in some food.

"I've called you both here because I would like to discuss marriage terms. Our son has just given up marrying Lady Lucy, so we were wondering if we can set up marriage terms with your daughter and our son?" Natsu's face fell and the Empress shot him a sympathetic look very quickly.

"Oh, well Queen Ikaruga, you see the thing is we've just set our daughter free. We didn't really have her betrothed to anyone so we told her she can go anywhere and find someone to get married to. In fact, we don't even know where she is."

The Queen of the Fire Land almost looked disgusted and Natsu was amazed. He didn't know and Empress would have such views! "But don't worry, if she can't find a husband, she'll probably be open to the request." Natsu's mother nodded her head before the King spoke up.

"What's your daughter's name again?"

At the same time , the said person walked into the room, pushing a cart of food.

"Juvia."

"Mother? Father?" All eyes looked up to see a blue haired maid standing there. Natsu stood up in surprise. Now he knew why the Empress looked so familiar! She was an older version of Juvia! Wait, so that meant she was a _Princess _and not a maid?!

"Juvia?!" His confused cry made Juvia's head snap over in his direction and they stared at each other in surprise. Erza sighed deeply. She had wanted to avoid Natsu finding it out _this _way.

Then her parents stood up. "Juvia, you came here?"

Then Lucy finally understood. It made sense as to why the glittering rain was falling over the Fire Land. Clearly, something must have happened that made Juvia so upset.

"You acted like a maid to find the perfect husband, right?" Juvia nodded, her eyes never leaving Natsu. He looked hurt and quite angry.

"You lied to me?" His voice cracked and she tried to come forward to console him. After 3 weeks of not speaking to one another and then patching it up, she didn't want something else to happen that would ruin their chances yet again. But she knew this day was coming, she just thought that she would get the chance to tell him.

"No, Natsu, Juvia can explain!" He shook his head and moved away from her, tears welling up in both their eyes. The only difference was that Natsu had tears of anger and Juvia had tears of sadness. The tears of the Princess was about to fall down once again.

"Don't. Don't even bother. You know, I thought you were truthful, that I knew the real you. I guess that was all fake. What was the Water Empire trying to do, show us up?" Juvia looked at all the faces around her before she bolted out of the room. She felt sick and it was like the room was going to start spinning of she didn't leave soon. Her mother quickly took off her heels and raised her dress.

"Juvia! Excuse me, Ikaruga, Igneel."

Natsu gritted his teeth as he just stormed out of the room and his dad stood up. "I'll talk to him, Ikaruga." The Queen sighed and nodded her head, giving her husband a kiss on the cheek.

"Come, Emperor, let us head to the dining room." They both left, leaving Erza, Lucy and Gray.

"I always hated that girl, ever since I stepped into her bucket of water." Gray scowled when he remembered that day. Hard to believe that that was over a month ago.

Lucy shook her head at him. "Juvia is a really kind person. I've met her a few times through her cousin who is a good friend of mine. It's a shame, all the guys just either use her to be the next Emperor or money. I guess it's understandable to come to a place where you're not known and try to get someone to marry you. But because it's Juvia and she has always had low self esteem, I bet she was never planning on catching Natsu's eye."

The other two kept their mouths shut and Erza felt bad. She should have told Natsu herself or at least made Natsu stay a while longer before he came to see his parents. She was shaken out of her thoughts when she heard the door open. She saw blue hair and then a tattoo. She gasped.

"Jellal?!"

He pushed the door open and opened his arms out wide for her. She ran into him and they hugged the life out of each other. "It's me in the flesh, Erza."

"But how are you here?"

"Well the Princess sent over a message saying that while she's out of the empire, I can have time off!"

Erza's jaw dropped. Juvia had actually done this for her. Her eyes fell to the ground as she was ashamed of herself and her thoughts towards Juvia when she first came across her. She took back every bad thing she ever said about Juvia. She did deserve Natsu. Jellal noticed.

"What's wrong?"

Erza explained to him all that has gone on and he shook his head. "You'll have to get Natsu-sama to talk to Juvia. You'll have to tell him to give Juvia-hime a chance to explain herself. I know the Princess will never do anything to intentionally hurt him."

Erza sighed and nodded. It was probably for the best.

* * *

Juvia opened her bedroom door with the tears flying about. She then opened her wardrobe door and gathered all her clothes before throwing them back into the suitcase. She had messed up and it would just be better if she just went back with her parents.

"Juvia honey, calm down!"

Her daughter ignored her as she sniffed and sobbed while doing the task at hand.

"No, Natsu-sama probably hates Juvia right now because Juvia lied to him after he said that Juvia felt real to him! Juvia can't calm down! Juvia loves him, mother! But now Juvia's messed it up. Please don't go along with the wedding arrangement. Juvia will just go back home and marry some guy."

Her mother grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard as though she were desperate to shake some sense into her head.

"Now you listen to me! You're a Lockser and around here, we marry based on love and it has to be true love from both parties! I don't want you to get married to some you don't love just because you think it's your duty, meanwhile I don't want some guy marrying you for the fame! Honey, _talk _to Natsu! I'm sure he's willing to let you talk, it was just his pain leading him before."

She wiped away her daughter's tears as juvia looked to the ground trying to stop her hiccups. "Now let's go and find Natsu."

~x~

The King followed his son, the clues that led to where his son had just stormed down and he found him beating up a sparring dummy. Igneel could see that his son was so angry and his fire was wild and out of control. He stood in the doorway for a while, watching the Prince beat up the dummy until there was almost nothing left of it. Eventually he got tired of waiting for the young man to calm down and he inhaled deeply and Natsu's flames then made their way up Igneel's nose. Natsu blinked, his anger momentarily forgotten before he turned to see his father standing there. He had almost forgotten about how strong his father was.

"Calmer now son?"

Natsu didn't speak, but he huffed and shrugged his shoulders, wanting to be angrier for longer, but it felt like it was just fizzling away now. He sighed and turned away from his dad.

"Yeah, I'm calm now."

The King didn't say anything as he just stepped further into the training room. He just paced around, waiting for his son to continue talking and Natsu knew that he was waiting for him to talk.

"I'm just...disappointed-"

"Don't forget angry."

Natsu turned his head sharply to glare at his dad. "Dad, don't interrupt me. Not when you just gave me a chance to talk."

The red haired man smiled sheepishly at his son. They were both a lot alike. You know what they say, like father like son.

"Anyway, I was just angry and disappointed that she would lie to me. All this time, I had been calling her real and truthful. I thought that I could act like myself around her, no formalities, nothing. It was so simple to talk to her, although she did insist on calling me 'Natsu-sama'. I mean, what if they're two sides to her? I got to know Juvia the maid, not the Princess."

His dad hummed under his breath as though he was trying to figure something out. "But that means you fell in love with the fact that she was a maid, a girl so simple and plain, and that you didn't fall in love with Juvia then, because her true self is a Princess and not a maid."

"What are you talking about, of course I fell in love with Juvia!"

His dad hummed again and Natsu found it annoying. Although his mother was a complete hothead, much like he is, his dad was calm. Once annoyed, his dad could probably blow up the whole land.

"Then why should it be any different is you've just found out that she's a Princess then? If she were a snotty brat, do you really think it would have been easy for her to reduce herself to a common maid? Did you hear her grumble at all when she was doing any of her work? Plus, Juvia is a quiet soul, rarely ever seen in her Empire. She didn't want to catch your attention, but she got it. You gave it to her son."

Natsu stayed silent for a while, mulling it over in his head. His dad was right. He somehow had this instinct where he could sense the intentions of someone, and Juvia's had felt pure, though with a little cloud of confusion.

"I think that you should give a chance to explain. Poor girl was so overwhelmed by your anger she just ran out. Are you seriously going to lose your future wife over a simple thing as a _title_?"

Natsu sighed. "I guess not-WAIT, WHAT?! MY WIFE?!"

The King sighed. "Well yes, your wife. Stop acting like you wouldn't want to marry her."

Natsu wanted to argue, but he ended up blushing instead. His dad grinned at him, knowing fully well that he had just caught him out.

"What are you still doing here?"

Natsu looked at his dad with the most confused expression ever.

_"What?"_

"You have a future wife to talk to and you're here, talking to your old man?! Get out before I fry your arse!"

Natsu's eyes widened as he started screaming and running out of the room, his father-the King-hot on his tails. (**A/N: **I am on FIRE with my puns. Lol, there goes another one) "I'm 22! I'm a grown man, not a 5 year old! You can't do this to me!"

"A man? Yeah right, you're acting like Juvia has the plague!" Natsu groaned before his dad stopped chasing him, laughing his head off.

"I'm just messing with ya son. Now go, you really upset her though I'm sure she knows she upset you too."

Natsu nodded his head before walking away from his father. He knew that Juvia would most likely want to tell him about what she did and there's only place she would want to do that...

* * *

Juvia sat by the waterfall where she always used to go to at night whenever she had the time. She knew that Natsu would have come here sooner or later and she was right. She saw him coming and she quickly stood up, still in her maid outfit. She smoothed out her hair before looking at him. He stopped about 5 meters away from her.

"Juvia..."

He was trying to act act cold by giving her the cold shoulder, but it wasn't working. He didn't know how Gray managed to make it work, but he did. It didn't work with him though. This was still the same woman that he had come to love. He was just hurt, hurt that he was lied to.

"Natsu-sama..."

He was surprised. "Why are you still calling me 'Natsu-sama,' when you're a Princess?"

Juvia shrugged. "Because...Juvia doesn't really know...It just, ugh! This is hard to explain!" Natsu couldn't deny it, but Juvia looked really cute as she was getting frustrated by her own words and not knowing how to explain just something so small.

"Why don't you explain from the beginning then." He came closer to her and sat down on the bench and motioned for her to join him. She sat down gingerly as she tried to keep to herself. Natsu saw this and sat down closer to her. He was supposed to be mad at her, but he didn't want to be anymore.

"Juvia is 21 now and she needs to get married to carry on the line for the throne. Juvia's parents want her to get married based on love, not an arranged married, but they gave Juvia a 1 year deadline. The only problem was that Juvia isn't beautiful compared to all the other nobles in the Water Empire, so no man was attracted to Juvia and no one caught Juvia's eyes in return. Besides, most people were only Juvia's friend because she's the Princess."

**(A/N: **Gosh, the amount of times I've had Juvia explain why she's in the Fire Land is bloody annoying and if it's not getting on your nerves, it's getting on mine! I'm not doing it again, I promise)

Natsu raised his hand up to make Juvia look at him. His hand rested under her chin and he turned her head. Her light blue eyes fell on his dark obsidian orbs. All his anger had vanished and he held nothing but true love for Juvia.

"Well I'm glad that they didn't catch your eyes or you caught theirs because that would mean that you wouldn't be sitting next to me right now and I don't want that at all. I don't care. I was just hurt that you didn't tell me who you really were, but now I know the truth, I'm definitely going to go on with my love for you. Remember what I said before? I'll love you no matter what."

Juvia's mouth was a perfect 'o' shape as she watched him. "But Juvia thought that Natsu-sama would be angry with Juvia! Juvia was lying the whole time, she's everything Natsu-sama doesn't want."

She couldn't look at his face anymore as she just looked away from his dark eyes.

"At first, I was so angry with you. I had called you real, so truthful! But I guess you weren't. I was wondering why you would want to treat me like that. But then I thought about it. You genuinely didn't want my love even though I kept on pushing it to you. You were truthful about everything except from your title and I could understand that. Hell, I would have done the same thing if my mum was actually letting me get married to who I want to."

Juvia bit her lip and looked up at him again. Natsu grabbed a hold of her hand. "I really _really _like you Juvia." He cupped her cheek and brought his face closer to hers so that their noses were almost touching one another.

"And Juvia really _really _likes Natsu-sama." She smiled at him before his lips gently brushed hers. It was a very gentle kiss and they both couldn't have asked for something any better. The passion that they both had was enough. The butterflies that exploded within their stomach felt good.

"Yes! They both kissed! Finally!"

The pair pulled apart so quickly as they looked at the hedge behind them.

"Shhh Erza! They're going to know that we're here!" Juvia wanted to face palm at the Knight. Jellal only seemed to do stupid things every time he thought about Erza. Clearly them being together like this now would be a huge mistake.

Natsu made sure they knew that he knew they were there. He smirked at Juvia. "Watch this..." He lciked his fingers in the direction of the bush and it set alight, making four people run out of them.

"HEY?! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Erza wasn't happy at all. He almost singed her clothes! She had to look good for Jellal here!

"Oh yeah? What was it you said about 'you didn't want to intrude'? What are you doing now? Oh yeah that's right, INTRUDING!"

Juvia couldn't help but giggle and Natsu threw her a grin of his. Erza went red and Lucy just dragged them all away. "I knew it was a bad idea. Let's get going anyway." She waved at them Prince and Princess.

"Lucy, what are you talking about? It was your idea?"

"Sh-shut up Gray!"

Natsu shook his head at their back and he sighed. It felt good that he could now be with Juvia out in the open. Now he didn't have to keep on pleasing people. That and Juvia now had no excuse to not be with him. She could no longer pull that 'but Juvia is a maid' crap on him anymore.

"We should get going now." He took her hand and she clasped it gladly. She smiled up at him and he couldn't help but notice how innocent she was. Even through her lies, she hadn't done it maliciously making her seem like she was the one in the right. Well Natsu didn't care about that anymore. He was just happy that he could be with Juvia and his mother won't try to kill her.

"Time to go and tell my mum!"

Juvia paled. That woman was scary.

* * *

So? How was it? Yes I know, very poorly done. I don't know what's going on lately. It's just pure nonsense now. Hmnm, I wonder what it is. Maybe it's because I'm rushing through it because I know that I have my exams on Tuesday and it's Psychology (omfg guys, I have a PSYCHOLOGY EXAM ON FUCKING TUESDAY!)

I'm freaking out! Am I ready? Well I feel like I am, so yeah! Ugh lol. I wish I could just stay home and write all the time. Finish my stories that need completing and write in more detail, but alas. We have this thing education that is seen as important. Ergh whatever. Anyone who has exams around this time, good luck to you as well! Hope you all get good grades because I need good grades if I wanna pass this year and then go university next year!

Please don't forget to rate or hate, flames or floods! Leave a review and I leave you with my love!

Lolita-chan


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